In downtown Yangon (Rangoon) 7Jul09 MOnday buying an airline ticket to Sittwe ("Sit-way") on the North West Coast 400Km from Yangon.  The travel Agent Lady fills out the airline ticket.The office is not busy but the chatter of the staff is like a flock of birds, lively and relaxed. "Excuse me, are you are Professor ?" she looks up from her writing. "Huh? ...Yes. How did you work that out ?" "The way you behave, the way you speak. I worked in Singapore at the University and met many professors." "I see, how did you spend in Singapore ?" "15 years." "Wow, that's a long time, you have PR I assume ?" "Yes." "What exactly tells you someone is a professor ?" "They are different." "How, what is different ?" "The way they speak, carefully check everything before doing it. Research things on the internet. They check on google first, have a plan. Other people if it does not work they change, and do things quick, not so polite." "But I just walked in and bought the ticket this morning." "Yes, but you came yesterday and checked the price and asked about Sittwe." She gotcha!!! ha ha ha ! "Ah ummmhh...yes you are right ! I did come in and check out if I could trust your agency." I had indeed checked the flight times and prices and compared them to others.  None of that was too surprising. At times I'd look at myself and think, "you look like an academic." Even I noticed that aspect off myself, the "academic whatever-it-is" about me. Interesting how a job can bring that out in a person, and stamp them. I've found School teachers and nurses, also get 'stamped' or 'coloured' in some way by their jobs. I'm sure every job does that in some way, but those are the ones I've noticed in particular. Of course poeple who sell cars, houses, or their bodies etc... get their own stamp in some way. Not everyone gets stamped by their job, but many, enough to create a stereotype. NOTE: the word 'Professor' is used by non University people as a generic term to mean any 'academic' who teaches at a University. Outside academia not every people realizes that 'professor' is a rank within the academic ladder and used as a technical term to denote levels of promotion similar to ranks in the military, or any other profession. Off to Sittwe on Tuesday. Tuesday evening: 9pm: back in Yangong (Rangoon) Rain delayed the flight 400km NW up the coast to "Sittaway". Everyone got back in after an hour. After an hour of flying: "Sorry the weather in Sittwe is too dangerous, we are turning back to Yangon". Right! That's travel in Myanmar. If you want Western reliability and the ability to plan everything like clockwork... this is not the place for it. I guess that's what I like about it. Weird, but true. If you take the bus, the axle can break, and you sit there for 3 hours while they get the welder from some village to fix it. If you take the ship... uhmmm .... don't want to think or about it. So tomorrow: back to the Ticket Lady. and ... 'Ze professor' will pay another visit to the returnee Singaporean PermResident-cum-travel-agent-in-Yangon. I'll go for a refund. Fingers crossed. I'm pleased I listened to myself and didn't buy a return ticket as well. ...As I was saying... internet here is precarious, typing this one survived two electrity blackouts in the last hour. Each time the local hotel generator stars up up, the Uniterrupable power supplies (UPS) kick in, and beep beep beep, - if you're lucky the PC survives and does not hang or freeze. Then the network guy comes around and resets the connections, cranks up the get-around-govt-blocking software and off we go again... "mamma mia, here we go again,... da da....how can I resist you... " (Abba) But you know what ? Life was kind of simpler when the internet did not exit here, but now that it does... well off I go... . I had better send this while the going is good.... an a dollar / hour its all very affordable... and re-teaches me again good IT backup procedures.... cheers Haiko |
No comments:
Post a Comment